Top Three Probiotic Myths
In today's gut, supplement, and health food industry, no product seems more beloved than probiotics. You're seeing them now in candy bars, cookies, and cereal. Everyone's telling you to take them for IBS, Irritable Bowel Disease, obesity, and type two diabetes. I've even written several articles and posts on my Instagram tailored to what you should look for in probiotics and what conditions probiotics can help support.
Probiotic manufacturers sometimes make some pretty lofty claims. Much misinformation has also made its way to the general public. We will discuss three probiotic myths I've heard being thrown around quite often over the past several years.
Myth #1: Probiotics Colonize the Gut.
People say: "Oh, you know, I'm not feeling great, so I need to take some probiotics just to 're-seed' my gut bacteria." Science tells us that's different from how it works. First, our stomach is one of the most acidic environments on the planet. That means it doesn't favor the growth of many organisms. They often can't even survive the stomach environment, especially if you take low-quality probiotics. You'd want probiotics making it past the stomach, at least into the small intestine, and ideally into the large intestine. That's why one of the things you want to look for in a probiotic on the ingredient label is an "enteric-coated capsule" because that'll help it to survive the acidic, really low pH environment that is the human stomach.
The other reason is probiotics have more of what's called a transient effect in the gut.
They serve most of their role, not by re-seeding the gut, but when they pass through, they release antimicrobial peptides or act as prebiotics for the good gut bugs.
There are trillions and trillions of bacteria within our gut, and if you look at most probiotic supplements, a serving is anywhere from five to fifty billion colony-forming units (CFUs). Fifty billion into multiple trillion, that's a drop in the bucket. That needs to be more dosage or more bacteria to make a change. Also, most supplements only have between 2–10 different species of bacteria, and hundreds of bacteria are within the human gut (1). Trying to influence that environment in this manner with only 0.4% (2/500) of what's there seems like a pretty tall task.
Myth #2: Fermented Foods Are Probiotics
People often say: "Oh, I started eating kimchi and drinking kombucha to get my probiotics." There's a precise definition of what constitutes a probiotic that supplemental probiotics have to meet.
Probiotics have to be live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit to the host (2).
Now, what does all that mean?
Live microorganisms: They need to be alive when you take the product, in
Adequate amounts: The amount listed on the product has been verified in some research lab or study.
Conferring a health benefit to the host: The probiotic strains used have been studied and shown to benefit human health. There are many clinical trials on supplemental probiotics, but there needs to be convincing data on fermented foods like kombucha and kimchi (3).
The microorganisms that are added to these fermented foods, hopefully, listed on the ingredient label, aren't always the amount you're ingesting (4). That's the amount that was added to the fermentation process. As we discussed earlier, the stomach's environment is so acidic that it won't allow many things to survive, meaning some of those organisms that have been added to fermented foods aren't make it through the stomach still intact.
If you're looking for gut health benefits from eating fermented foods, that's a good idea in practice, and it has good intentions behind it. Fermented foods can be a nice piece of a well-rounded diet, but they're not the same as probiotics. Please don't eat them, thinking they'll have the same effect. Some people with histamine intolerance may not be able to handle fermented foods well because fermented foods are very high in histamine. People who drink kombucha or have some fermented yogurt get bloated and distended bellies.
Myth #3: Probiotics Can Fix Any Gut Issue
This is the most important myth that needs debunking and addressing. I've heard it everywhere, from graduate school to patients that come to me and conversations with my friends back home. It goes something like this: "I'm bloated. Do you think I should take a probiotic?" Or they come to me having already been diagnosed with IBS, saying: "Yeah, I didn't change my diet, I just took a probiotic, and it didn't help." Shocker.
Probiotics can't mask a suboptimal lifestyle.
If you're not sleeping well, not eating a nutrient-dense diet, your stress is high, not exercising, or exercising the wrong way, there are better approaches than taking the world's best probiotics. In probiotic research, what you'll find is that they work well when they're coupled in tandem with nutritional interventions (5). For example, in people with IBS, taking probiotics combined with a Low FODMAP diet can do wonders for some people's digestive woes.
Don't buy into any hype that you can walk into any health food store and buy any probiotic without changing your diet or addressing stress or these foundational lifestyle elements. Again, this is why people must seek out experienced clinicians or a Functional Medicine practitioner. At The HIVE Natural Health Center, we have knowledge of the probiotic space, have worked with people to make tailored nutrition strategies and supplemental regimens, and know the nuances. We can sift through a lot of the B.S. that's out there in the supplement industry.
This wasn't a poo-poo, no pun intended, on probiotics. Probiotics are an excellent product. They can do beautiful things when you find the right one for you. I just wanted to address and dispel some of the things I've seen that are causing people to spend way too much money on the wrong types of products, especially when there are tried and true strategies that can work well to help address someone's underlying gut issues.
If you did enjoy the article and found it helpful or informative, I'd love it if you clicked the applause icon. That helps this article get in front of more people and helps to spread the message of optimizing your digestive health.
As always, Trust in Your Gut.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for educational purposes onl, and are not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Do not apply any of the information in this article without first speaking with your doctor.
References
- Rinninella E, Raoul P, Cintoni M, Franceschi F, Miggiano GAD, Gasbarrini A, Mele MC. What is the Healthy Gut Microbiota Composition? A Changing Ecosystem across Age, Environment, Diet, and Diseases. Microorganisms. 2019; 7(1):14. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms7010014
- Reid G, Gadir AA, Dhir R. Probiotics: Reiterating What They Are and What They Are Not. Front Microbiol. 2019;10:424. Published 2019 Mar 12. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00424
- Dimidi E, Cox SR, Rossi M, Whelan K. Fermented Foods: Definitions and Characteristics, Impact on the Gut Microbiota and Effects on Gastrointestinal Health and Disease. Nutrients. 2019;11(8):1806. Published 2019 Aug 5. doi:10.3390/nu11081806
- Kok CR, Hutkins R. Yogurt and other fermented foods as sources of health-promoting bacteria. Nutr Rev. 2018;76(Suppl 1):4–15. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuy056
- Xie Y, Zhou G, Xu Y, et al. Effects of Diet Based on IgG Elimination Combined with Probiotics on Migraine Plus Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Pain Res Manag. 2019;2019:7890461. Published 2019 Aug 21. doi:10.1155/2019/7890461
